


Singing Praises

by starrelia



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Canon, Canon Colour Blind Character, Cisgender, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 05:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6788224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrelia/pseuds/starrelia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her hair is as red as her fading rage and Mordecai finds himself staring for a moment too long. Of course, she – Lilith – notices and looks at him with an arched eyebrow and a small smirk on her face. “What? Intimidated?” she teases, and Mordecai frowns.</p><p>“Nah.” Then, for whatever reason, he continues talking. “Ya hit him pretty damn good.” Lilith grins at that, proud, and she puffs up and sits up straighter. “Kinda deserved it.”</p><p>“Hell yeah he did!” she responds with a big, almost validated grin, and Mordecai looks down and stares at the distance in between his feet. “Hey now, don’t be a stranger. What’s your name? You prob’ly heard mine.”</p><p>He glances up at her briefly. “Name’s Mordecai.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Singing Praises

**Author's Note:**

> Fucking typos.
> 
>  **Edit** : The sex scene has been removed.

Being called a Dominatrix isn’t something that Mordecai expects when he steps into the bus, heading off to Fyrestone to be a ‘vault hunter’ and make the world repay its debt. No, honestly; he didn’t even expect to be on a bus, of all things, but he doesn’t know _anywhere_ or anyone in this place, and the fast travel stations don’t work.

So, bus it is. He’s the first one to step on into this empty, ugly thing, and it rattles and shakes as the man – Marcus – drives him and starts to tell stories. Mordecai’s only half paying attention, eyes focusing more on the sniper rifle in his hands and at the age that shows. It’s far too old, far too used, and Mordecai doesn’t doubt that he’s probably going to be replacing it soon enough.

But still, it’ll do for now. He drags his thumb over places that he has tried to clean up, over and over, and he sighs from the fact that he’ll have to put his old, favourite sniper down. The next person to board the bus barely manages to shove himself in. He’s large, bulky, and smells like blood and brutality as he steps on.

Mordecai eyes him warily, and the man looks at him with a blank stare. “Brick.” he says, and Mordecai raises an eyebrow. “Name’s Brick.”

“Mordecai.” He introduces himself and looks away, and the two don’t talk for the rest of the ride. Mordecai’s not really paying attention when the third person comes aboard, and only hears Marcus comment on how he seems eerily similar to an Atlas soldier. He doesn’t entirely get what that means, so he doesn’t think about it and doesn’t look at the soldier that steps on, doesn’t talk to him, and neither does Brick.

The last person to get on is a woman. She slaps Marcus in the face, hard, when he makes a joke towards her and she’s glaring at him with a fury that make even Mordecai flinch. “It’s _Lilith._ Not _missy_ to you.” She spits out and falls next to Mordecai, arms crossing in front of her and a glare settling on her face.

Her hair is as red as her fading rage and Mordecai finds himself staring for a moment too long. Of course, she – Lilith – notices and looks at him with an arched eyebrow and a small smirk on her face. “What? Intimidated?” she teases, and Mordecai frowns.

“Nah.” Then, for whatever reason, he continues talking. “Ya hit him pretty damn good.” Lilith grins at that, proud, and she puffs up and sits up straighter. “Kinda deserved it.”

“Hell yeah he did!” she responds with a big, almost validated grin, and Mordecai looks down and stares at the distance in between his feet. “Hey now, don’t be a stranger. What’s your name? You prob’ly heard mine.”

He glances up at her briefly. “Name’s Mordecai.”

“Mordy.” She immediately calls him, and he raises an eyebrow. “You’re Mordy now.” she leans back against her seat and looks up at the roof of the bus, and Mordecai looks down and blinks owlishly from behind his goggles.

Well, whatever, he doesn’t even know if he’s going to see her again. The drive to Fyrestone is only minutes away, and when Marcus comes to a stop they all stand up.

It takes him a while to start moving again when he realises everyone is heading to the same destination, and Lilith is looking at him with big, curious eyes and then looking back at everyone else to check and see if they all seem as curious as she is. “You all here to vault hunt?” she asks after a while, and they all let out a “yes” in near-unison.

Huh. So he is gonna see more of her after all.

* * *

Their start in this vault hunting adventure isn’t really a glorious one. Mordecai and Lilith get separated from Roland, whose name he learns when the man finally awkwardly introduces himself, and Brick far too often and they’re left to fend for themselves.

As it is, two skinny as hell people are very bad at taking hits in comparison to a buff soldier and a giant hulk of a man. Lilith’s a siren, which means she goes all sparkly and weird and the psychos and mercs can’t get to her, but that also means Mordecai has to deal with the enemies on his own whenever she does that.

It takes some time for them both to get accustomed to each other, and Lilith screams the first time Bloodwing rushes past her and rips a dude’s head clean off. It’s more of a scream of surprise and, to be fair, Mordecai also screams the first time Lilith just _isn’t_ anymore.

They establish a sort of… rapport after a while. Lilith runs in and attracts all the attention, shotgun in hand and murder being screamed from the top of her lungs, and Mordecai finds a vantage point to snipe off anyone that tries to sneak up on her. It goes surprisingly well and it helps to be able to do something with someone on this crapsack planet with literally nothing else to it than a vault that may or may not exist.

“Whoo!” Lilith yells as Mordecai falls beside her and lands surprisingly gracefully on his feet. He stands up, dusts off any sand that didn’t shake off, and he looks over to her. “Man, I may hate this place but killing’s fun as hell!”

Mordecai snorts and Lilith gives him a sharp look. “C’mon, you can’t tell me it ain’t fun to shoot guys down! I didn’t have this much fun on my old planet. Everyone was a hermit.”

“Uh-huh.” Mordecai raises an eyebrow; though he doesn’t know why he even bothers given she can’t see it. “How come ye’re so good at shooting, then?”

Lilith grins and places her hands on her hips. “When you don’t have trouble, you make it for yourself and have fun, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he says, “why didn’t I thinka dat, huh?”

“Prob’ly cause you ain’t as smart as I am.” She elbows him a little too hard in the ribs and he tries not to flinch. “C’moooon Mordy, admit it, you had fun!”

He shrugs. “ ‘course I did, though I have no clue how the hell _you_ had fun runnin’ into a group of people screaming ‘I’M AMAZING’.”

“It’s the adrenaline!”

“You get tired easier with adrenaline.”

“So? It still feels great. And, and helps with sleeping problems, maybe.” Mordecai stares at her and she stares back, and their staring contest is only stopped when Brick yells out for them. “C’mon, let’s go. ‘sides, ain’t fun havin’ a staring contest with goggles.”

He laughs at her pouty face and follows after her, a grin trying not to spread on his face as she dejectedly makes her way back with Mordecai on her heels. He doesn’t ignore the way Lilith stares at Roland’s ass appreciatively and he shakes his head.

Though, Roland’s ass is nice. He’ll give her that much. He pinches her side and Lilith yelps, glares up at Mordecai, and stops staring at Roland’s ass before the soldier can even notice her staring. At least he saved the man from noticing and getting even more awkward about it.

* * *

They end up getting a car finally, and Mordecai hates to admit it but he doesn’t know how to drive. Rather, he does, but he’s awful at it and he immediately lets Lilith drive. She gives him a questioning look when Mordecai crawls up into the gunner’s seat, like a damn money, but Lilith doesn’t say much as she hops up into the driver’s seat.

The cars on Pandora are weird, though it makes for hilariously great fun as Mordecai shoots rocket upon rocket on unsuspecting merc assholes and freaking skags alike.

It’s in the middle of driving that Lilith strikes up conversation, yelling as loud as she can because the rocks are crazy loud and Mordecai _loves it,_ even if he can’t see for shit because of all the damn smoke clouds. “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?!” Lilith yells out, and Mordecai has to strain slightly to hear her.

“I DO!” he yells back. “I’M JUST _REALLY_ BAD AT IT!”

He thinks Lilith’s laughing, but he can’t really hear her. “YEAH? YOU SURE? YOU DON’T WANNA TRY AND SEE IF-“

“NO.” he interrupts her and shoots off another rocket at a badass, corrosive skag. “TRUST ME, I’M TERRIBLE. I KNOW.”

Lilith doesn’t push it anymore, but he thinks she’s still laughing even when they get to their stop and they jump off. Brick and Roland have already made it here and are standing by the vending machines, talking about this and that, and Mordecai’s exhaling through his nose when the awful stench of Pandora finally hits him.

The smell of gunpowder and death is way more preferable to the actual smell of Pandora; far too sweaty and sick, like a skag pup vomiting all over itself in an attempt to try and fix the ache of its developing stomach.

Yeah, he can’t wait to get off of this crapsack planet with the treasures of the vault that ‘Angel’ promises them is actually there. Lilith’s not as trusting, neither is Roland, but Brick and Mordecai are more than aware that other than them Angel is the only one who seems to actually care about the vault.

It’s just so damn shitty that it has to be on the armpit smelling planet of all planets. Why couldn’t it be on Promethea? Mordecai remembers hearing that that place is pretty damn gorgeous, even more so now that Atlas has discovered the Eridian ruins or whatever the heck they are.

But no, whatever forces above said that a vault needs to be on Pandora and it is. There are a ton of people even saying no vault is here, so he really hopes he didn’t waste his time in a planet that smells like ten-thousand unwashed socks for nothing.

Lilith gags near him and Mordecai looks at her, catches her dragging her shirt over her nose and he rubs at his own. “How are they _handling_ this?” Lilith cries out.

“Probably faced worse smells?” he shrugs, and Lilith follows after him after a while of them waiting for Roland and Brick to… stop [play-]arguing over nothing, essentially. They’ve a mission to do and Mordecai wants to get to the vault already.

Or well, rather Lilith does, and he might as well make his teammate feel satisfied.

* * *

“DON’T YA THINK THIS IS KINDA DUMB?” Mordecai screams out over the sounds of cars, rockets and turrets, and over Lilith’s screaming as well as they try, desperately, to kill some of the outriders here. Because Scooter says they have to, and so they are. For some reason. “I MEAN, I CAN BARELY SEE A THING.”

“HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?” Lilith screams back, and she’s yelling as she desperately tries not to flip the car over into scythids. Her driving is a mess right now, and Mordecai’s barely able to stay in his seat from how she constantly boosts and tries to get away from imminent death.

Their ECHO is saying that their car is at least at half-health, so-

Except, suddenly it’s at zero health and they explode. Just like that. He doesn’t even see what causes them to explode, and he only knows that he’s going flying and rolling and tumbling about. Lilith lands near him, her body rolling for a brief bit before she shakily gets to her knees.

She’s bleeding, _badly,_ and Mordecai’s faring way better than she is but—oh wow. He flinches when he thinks he sees something jammed into Lilith’s shoulder and Mordecai pales ever so slightly when she spits out blood.

There are cars nearby and they’re about to run her over, so he fiddles with his revolver and aims, his entire body screaming with the movement, and shoots. The car explodes from the shot, flying over Lilith’s kneeling self in bits and pieces on fire as they arc over her.

Her eyes are wide and focusing up on the bits of car debris and bodies that fly over her. Arms and heads and torsos are tumbling in the sand, staining it a bright red that will fade into dark crimson if the wind doesn’t hide it away. The shock doesn’t last long for Mordecai and he’s stumbling onto his two feet, limping ever so slightly, and he grabs at Lilith’s arm – the less hurt one – and ignores the way she hisses to swipe it over her digistruct device.

Medkits fall onto the sand and Mordecai grabs at them with shaky hands and works on patching Lilith up as best she can with the first aid tech. He rubs an odd-smelling ointment over cuts and watches as the skin and muscle slowly, grossly, grow back and attach to each other; he injects the syringe of medi-fluid [as it’s stupidly called] into her and watches as the colour comes back to her.

She gasps and he places his fingers on her pulse, on her wrist, and breathes in relief when he can feel a steady, if not far too quick, beat underneath his fingertips. “Okay,” Mordecai says with a sigh, “you’re okay. M’gonna remove this—“ he gestures at the piece of metal in Lilith’s shoulder, and she winces, “—outta ya, and then I’m gonna patch ya up.”

Lilith looks away from him, a frown on her face from what Mordecai can see, and he inhales through his nose and exhales through his mouth. Grabbing the piece of metal, he breathes and tries to steady himself before he slowly drags it out. “Hhhff— _hate this.”_ Lilith hisses out, and Mordecai looks at her apologetically.

Then, realising she can’t see it, he pats her on her knee before he goes back to trying to remove the piece of metal. Lilith mostly hisses and whimpers, sounding like a hurt and broken bird (or… or puppy, that’s more fitting) as he pulls it out.

He swipes his hand over his own digistruct device and presses the cloth he gets from his pack against her shoulder. He presses with one hand and reaches over to grab at the ointment again, and Mordecai edges the cloth away slowly once he thinks the bleeding should have lessened enough.

Quickly, Mordecai rubs the ointment on her again and watches as the skin heals. Breathing a sigh of relief, he backs away from Lilith and she grins up at him with bloody lips. His world spins, his condition finally catching up to him, and he sees Lilith’s face twist into surprise as he goes down.

* * *

When he wakes up, Mordecai realises he’s still seeing the world through his goggles. He sits up, his body not in terrible pain anymore, and he looks around to see that… he’s in a shitty house, lying on a makeshift cot, Lilith is sitting on a counter counting money, and there’s a man sitting on a defunct, old toilet. Lefty, he thinks he’s called. Or maybe he’s Levy? Fuck if Mordecai remembers.

“Yo there.” Lilith says, her voice bright and he looks over to her again. “Gave me a scare there. Thought you died, or somethin’. Wanna give a gal a warnin’ before you just drop?”

Mordecai shrugs. “I felt great.”

“Aaaand feeling great means passing out.”

“Hey,” he says with a grin, “I saved ya, didn’t I?”

“Which, thanks, by the way.” Lilith smiles at him, actually smiles, and Mordecai has to fight back the urge to smile back—no teeth or smugness, just smile. “But seriously, you okay there? I did my best but I was kinda still shaky; apparently, having your heart try and desperately fill your body up with blood again is kinda weird feeling.”

He snorts and looks back down in between his legs. “I be- where’s Bloodwing?” he sits up suddenly, eyes wide behind his goggles and he looks around.

“Calm down.” Lilith calls out, voice stern and Mordecai’s shifting around to look at her. “I bet you’re glaring at me, but seriously, chill. I told Bloodwing to circle outside for a bit. Your boy bird’s _fine._ He flew outta the car before it exploded. Smart bird ya got.”

“That’s _my_ Bloodwing.” Mordecai puffs up with pride and flinches immediately afterwards. “So he’s just out? Outside, circling around? What if a sniper found him, huh?”

She looks at him incredulously. “Do you _think_ there any snipers besides you here?”

They stare at each other in silence for a bit. Mordecai’s shoulders slump and Lilith preens. “Told ya so.” She puts the money away and slides off of the counter, makes her way over to Mordecai and taps at his shoulder. “You ready to head back? Brick and Roland echoed me, and they were done with their mission.”

“Hell yeah I’m ready.” Mordecai responds, and Lilith snickers as he swings his legs over the makeshift cot and settles on the ground and stands up.

“You have really long legs.” Lilith says, and Mordecai shrugs. “I’m a tall man.” He replies, before he impatiently makes his way outside to go and get Bloodwing.

* * *

Nothing really exceptional happens throughout the rest of their time there. Mordecai thinks he’s going to kill someone if he has to go back and forth through New Haven again and go to another dirty, dusty, sandy place to kill some asshole and get something and—

He swears to _whatever God that Pandorans worship_ that he’s going to shoot Brick in the pinky toe if the Angel-AI appears again, zooms in real close, to her freaking eye, and starts demanding they get to the vault already.

A scowl seems to have permanently settled itself on his face, or at least it feels like it has, and Lilith seems to share his sentiments because she’s scowling too. Apparently, Pandora does that to people. Makes them scowl, that is.

Didn’t Helena Pierce say something about not interfering as well? Why does he feel like that’s going to bite him in the ass? Not only him, but literally everyone on this damn mission?

What if the vault isn’t even real? Does that mean they’ve spent days on this planet, running around gathering vault key parts for freaking nothing?

If this is the world’s way of repaying its debt to him, then Mordecai doesn’t want it.

He feels an elbow dig into his side and looks down to see who did it and he’s somehow not surprised to see that it’s Lilith. “Yeah?” he asks, arms crossing in front of him and Lilith eyes him up. “What?”

“Did you listen to what the mission’s about?”

“Nope.”

“I mean, ‘course not. You and I gotta go someplace, bud, and I begged Roland to let us have this mission because at least we kill something _big.”_

He tilts his head to the side. “Yeah? What’re we killin’?”

“Something called Skagzilla.”

Mordecai sighs loudly. “A skag? Seriously, Lil?”

She frowns at him. “Listen, it’s called _Skagzilla._ There’s obviously somethin’ about it. C’moooon, Mordy, c’mooooon.”

“I’m too old for this.” Lilith looks at him suspiciously when he says that and Mordecai shrugs. “I’m not— _old._ Just feel old.”

“You’re _totally_ old.” Lilith counters. “You are so totally old, aren’t you? You even almost sound old.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“It means you’re getting there!”

“I ain’t old!”

“I bet you are!”

He throws his hands up. “Let’s just kill Skagzilla.”

“Booyah!”

Turns out, Skagzilla shoots lasers. Turns out, neither of them are expecting that. He doesn’t know what to say to Lilith after that entire ordeal, but she’s cackling maniacally, full of obvious glee, and Mordecai’s…

Mordecai’s feeling very overwhelmed right now. He needs a drink or like, fifty five. Or a hundred. He just needs all the drinks in Pandora right now because how the hell are—

_The skag shoots lasers._

How can anyone even react to that?

* * *

When they get back to the meeting spot – a shitty shack in the middle of nowhere that’s surprisingly convenient – Roland and Brick aren’t there. Mordecai plops down onto a chair and follows Lilith’s movement, and he crosses his arms in front of him and leans back when she falls down next to him.

It’s weirdly comforting having her beside him, and Mordecai thinks he doesn’t mind this that much. He closes his eyes and tilts his head back, lets him relax, and he tries not to grin when he hears Lilith singing to herself.

He can’t recognise the language – it almost sounds like Truxican, but he’s willing to bet its Ellaty – but he has to admit that Lilith definitely sounds really nice. Within moments, Mordecai finds himself completely relaxed and at ease with the help of her voice and tries to hum along without realising it.

Lilith goes quiet then and Mordecai opens his eyes and tilts his head to look at her. She’s looking at him, looking away, then she sighs and looks back towards him, leans close until she’s hovering slightly above him, and Mordecai’s eyes are wide.

“S’okay?” Lilith asks, her eyes on his mouth, and he nods without even thinking. She grabs at his face, hands on his cheeks, and tilts his head so that she can kiss him with ease. He uncrosses his arms and uses his arms to bring her closer, to have her settle on his lap properly and she’s the one that deepens the kiss.

Her hands are still on his cheeks, and he rests his own on Lilith’s hips. They don’t do much other than kissing, but Mordecai doesn’t mind much as Lilith licks the insides of his mouth, rubs her tongue against his and he doesn’t mind the fact that she’s frantic and almost desperate as she kisses him.

They only part when they need to breathe, but Lilith’s immediately kissing him again when she can breathe again and Mordecai’s breath catches in his throat. He lets her lead, because it feels more natural that way, and one of Lilith’s hands move down to rest on his shoulder and the other cups his face. She backs away finally, lips red and his own are probably red too, and grins.

“Been wantin’ to do that for a while.” She kisses his cheek. “Wanna date?” she’s so confident about it, in a way that makes Mordecai want to laugh, but he bumps his head against her shoulder and snickers instead. “Hey! Don’t do that. Mordy, yes or no, that easy.”

He pets her back. “Yeah, yeah sure.” Lilith’s grinning wide, mouth open to say something but Mordecai interrupts her almost immediately. “You wanna get off me before Rol and Brick head back because I hear their runner, and I don’t think they wanna catch you on my lap.”

As though realising their position, she clambers off of him and falls next to him, on the chair, again and she laughs breathlessly. “You taste like melons.” Lilith says, finally, and Mordecai looks at her like she’s dumb. She shrugs at him and Mordecai doesn’t get to say anything when Roland and Brick walk in.

When Brick looks at them, there’s a knowing glint in his eyes and he gives them both a thumbs up. Roland just drags his cap over his face and groans in embarrassment.

* * *

They still have some ways to go, but Mordecai feels like they’re getting to the end. Roland and Brick are pretty much busy doing some sidestuff to try and get them money and guns to make sure they’re ready for the end, and Mordecai and Lilith have been told to go and clear the path and do some _other_ sidestuff to make sure things are cleared up.

It’s weird, kinda, but they’re also getting loot and class mods for it so he doesn’t mind the timewasters. Besides, Lilith seems to be in a much higher spirit since their kiss and them actually agreeing to date, even though it’s probably in the most anticlimactic way possible to ask someone out.

Normally, people are nervous and fidgety. Hell, Mordecai himself remembers being anxious to ask his first boyfriend out, then his first girlfriend.

The very idea of still asking makes him shift on his feet. It’s not a very appealing thought [because not everything has always been so damn successful, and Mordecai’s still bitter] but Lilith seems to do it as easily as _breathing._

Maybe it’s the whole age di-

Nah.

Not gonna think about that.

But whatever it is, Lilith is definitely way more confident than he is. She’s also way more… touchy. Way more willing to grab Mordecai, midfight, and drag him close for a hard smacking kiss before she’s pushing him away to go and kill some guys.

She likes kissing him a lot, Mordecai has noticed, and he’s not complaining. It also helps that she can’t see most his face, and he’s sure that she will eventually at some point, so she can’t see the way she catches him off-guard every time.

… Lilith also really likes to grab his ass. She does it whenever Roland and Brick aren’t looking or paying attention, and she does it when they’re done fighting. It’s _thrilling_ to have someone this in control, and Mordecai thinks that says something about him.

 _‘Why am I not surprised that Lilith’s an ass woman?’_ he thinks with a snicker as Lilith runs around, guns blazing, to a group of surprised Atlas mercs that didn’t expect a considerably smaller woman to kick their asses that hard.

Man, it’s nice to have a girlfriend that can kick ass. He climbs up one of the poles, one of the little shelters set up, and snipes down any Atlas fucker that tries to get to Lilith.

They have a very, very good rapport, and it’s even better now that Lilith’s just in a constant good mood. It’s kinda cute to see Lilith laugh gleefully, with blood all over, in a way that he hasn’t heard before.

It’s less of a ‘HELL YEAH I’M AWESOME’ laugh and more of a ‘hell yes I’m having a good time’ laugh.

They confront the Baron… something or other, Mordecai thinks, when Brick and Roland are with them – with new guns too! Mordecai has needed guns for a while, and Lilith mostly has shotguns – and they all seem to do pretty okay.

Brick gets to fight with people that just as huge as he is, so that’s a sight for sure. Two giant, terrifyingly buff guys that smell of blood and gore fighting to the death. Or rather, three, because a third one just barrels outta nowhere and pounces on Brick with the full intent on killing him.

Lilith whistles. “Wow. It’s like watching a cock fight or something.”

Mordecai decides not to ask if she means cock as in rooster or cock as in _cock._ He also decides he doesn’t want to know if it’s the latter because that will raise a lot of questions.

* * *

They’re having some breathing time now that the ECHOnet is down, thanks to Atlas, and Angel isn’t able to bug them as easily because of it. Roland and Brick are off doing… something. Mordecai suspects banging, because there is no way in hell those two aren’t dating, and Lilith is lazing about in the only ‘hotel’ that New Haven has.

Well, as much of a hotel as it can be, really. This place is just as shitty and colourless as literally everywhere else, which is saying something because Mordecai can’t even see some colours. Though, he can definitely see Lilith—though not her eyes.

Sure, sometimes she looks off in comparison to other people in the background or when there’s too much blue or purple around, but he still knows what she’s supposed to be.

Brick and Roland echo at some point to let them know they’re gonna be gone for a few hours, and Mordecai shrugs and puts his ECHO away. Lilith does the same and she groans. She rolls her shoulders, rubs at her shoulder blades, and then focuses keenly on Mordecai.

He hums curiously and Lilith sits up on the bed she’s lying on, old but still serviceable, and leans close to him and grabs at his shoulders.

“Hey,” she says, “I’m in… _a mood.”_ It takes Mordecai some time to realise what she means but he lets out a soft ‘oh’ when the realisation hits him. “Yeah,” Lilith says with a grin curling on her lips, “sit there and be good, okay? I just need to relieve myself—oh, you got a condom with you?”

Mordecai groans and lets his head fall back. “No, dam-“

“Thought so. I got one.” He straightens up to look at her incredulously and she waves him off. “Unzip those pants.” She says—orders, and Mordecai watches her get up and move away. He stares at her take her boots off before he kicks back into gear and sets to working on his own pants.

He fumbles with his button and zipper before he undoes them both. He shoves his trousers down, alongside his briefs, and grabs at his own cock. “Oh,” Lilith says and he looks over to her, “that’s a _good_ dick. Yeah, _yeah.”_ She licks her lips then and Mordecai’s cock throbs in his hand. “Stroke yourself for me- then, when you’re nice and hard…” she reaches into her backpocket and drops two packets near Mordecai. “Condom, then lube yourself up.”

 

 

* * *

Lilith falls onto the bed after she’s dressed herself up, her boots on the floor, and she’s grinning at Mordecai with a pleased glint in her eyes.

He fixes himself up as well, tucks himself in, and moves the chair so that he’s sitting next to her on the bed.

“We’re pretty close to the end.” Lilith says softly, and he assumes she means the vault. “Tannis, Angel, Pierce… man. This has been kinda crazy.”

Mordecai snorts. “Yeah.” He’s breathless, voice just as soft as Lilith’s. “A vault, and s’real, maybe?”

“Maybe.” She says, a small smile on her face. “I’uhno. We’ll see?” he nods, lets his head fall back against the wall and closes his eyes. “Be safe out there when we gotta go, you got me?”

He hums.

“Seriously, Mordy. Be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says finally, “I will be.”

“Ya promise, bird boy?”

“I promise, you asshole.”

It’s weirdly peaceful now, though Mordecai feels like it’s not going to be once Lilith realises she needs a bath.

He grins.

A vault that seems to actually be real, or else he doubts that Steele really would have cared otherwise. Why should someone from Atlas care about some self-proclaimed vault hunters chasing after a folktale if it isn’t real?

The world has more than repaid its debt to him, and he looks over to the sleeping Lilith with a small smile on his face.

All that’s left is the vault of the destroyer.


End file.
